Bellevue Gold’s road to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2026

Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL) is aiming to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2026 at its namesake Bellevue Gold project in WA.

One of Australia’s highest-grade gold mines, the Bellevue gold project has a mineral resource of 3.1moz and is one of the country’s newest gold producers with first production achieved in late 2023 and only ramping up from there.

Bellevue expects the project to produce more than 1.8moz of gold over its initial 10-year mine life.

The Australian Mining Review spoke with Bellevue Gold managing director and chief executive Darren Stralow about the company’s namesake project and its ambitious goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions much earlier than its competitors.

“Bellevue is a brand new mine which we’ve spent the last few years building,” he said.

“It was discovered in its most recent form in 2017.

“We’ve just gone through the transition from being an explorer to a developer to a producer.”

Importance of net zero

Net zero refers to the balance between the carbon expelled into the atmosphere and the carbon removed from it.

The mining industry is one of the largest greenhouse gas producers and companies are moving away from fossil fuels, coal, diesel and heavy fuel oil, instead turning towards on site power generation and renewable energy to help reduce emissions.

Furthermore, diesel-fuelled vehicles and equipment are being replaced by electric fleets operating on solar or wind energy.

Mining companies are focusing on reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with many having short-term targets of 2030 and going completely net zero by 2050 or earlier.

Bellevue Gold has gone one step further and is aiming have net zero emissions by 2026, which is only 17 months away.

“Something that we try to do at Bellevue is to weave sustainability into what the core fabric is of our company,” Mr Stralow said.

“If you’re a copper miner or a nickel miner it’s easy to say ‘what we produce goes into electric vehicles so that makes us a green company’, whereas for gold miners it can be a little bit harder to have that green tinge to what you’re doing.

“We sought to have environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus be something that we did well and the core to that strategy was a target of net zero by 2026 which is something that nobody else is doing and in fact nobody else has followed us to it either.”

Net zero emissions by 2026

As the Bellevue project moves towards steady-state production, Bellevue Gold is committed to becoming Australia’s ‘Green and Gold miner’ by prioritising ESG aspects and sustainable development throughout the company.

While the primary focus for emissions reduction is on renewable energy and decarbonisation measures, hard-to-abate emissions will require offsetting.

“For us, it’s an achievable target [net zero by 2026],” Mr Stralow said.

“The backbone of it is installing an industry-leading renewable energy power station.

“What we’re building is a state-of-the-art hybrid renewable power station.

“It’s got gas and diesel as your thermal supply, but you’ve also got solar, battery and wind as your renewable supply.

“We’ve just plugged into it now [the power station], the solar and the batteries are starting to feed into the station now with the wind to follow later this year.”

Renewable energy

A central element of Bellevue’s net zero strategy came to light in FY23 with the signing of a power purchase agreement for an up to 80% renewable hybrid power station with Zenith Energy (ASX: ZEN).

This power station will supply all the electricity needs for the mine site and accommodation village at an average load of 16.5MW.

It is expected to use a combination of wind, solar, gas, diesel and a battery energy storage solution.

The power station is designed to meet up to 80% of the mine’s power needs from renewable sources and is expected to be able to operate on 100% renewable energy at times via ‘engine off’ mode during periods of high renewable energy generation.

“We’ve just finished the build [of the power station] and it provides us the foundation of reducing the amount of carbon emissions that we’re producing,” Mr Stralow said.

“We also reduce it through operational changes such as increasing electrification and modifying our work practices to optimise our power drawing activities to be at periods of time when there’s high renewable energy available.

“What that does is reduce the amount of carbon that we’re going to produce and there’ll be a tail of carbon that we offset in order to achieve the net zero.”

Decarbonisation

Throughout the development of the Bellevue gold project, Bellevue completed three feasibility studies with each incorporating decarbonisation initiatives.

To work towards its goal of net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2026, Bellevue Gold adopted the carbon mitigation hierarchy to avoid, eliminate, reduce and offset emissions.

A particular focus was on the comprehensive review of all the electricity uses and diesel powered vehicles.

Carbon offset strategy

In FY23, Bellevue Gold approved a carbon offset strategy.

The majority of the hard-to-abate emissions at the Bellevue project are forecast to be generated from the underground mining fleet.

While Bellevue Gold is monitoring advancements in alternate technology, it will continue to revise its strategy in offsetting these emissions to achieve its net zero emissions goal.

The company is reviewing the carbon offset market to initially procure high quality and locally produced certified carbon offsets which will be verified through a recognised independent standard.

Further work will focus on carbon co-development opportunities with aligned partners.

Green gold production

In October 2023, the first gold bar was poured from Bellevue Gold’s namesake project, weighing 8.3kg and marking a massive milestone for the company.

Now that first gold pour has been achieved, Bellevue Gold is exploring the potential of selling net zero emission gold at a premium to the spot gold price.

“We’ve talked to our refiners about whether we can produce a product from Bellevue that has supply chain surety so people know that the product has come from the Bellevue mine,” Mr Stralow said.

“That will allow us to create a product that has a single source of origin, being Bellevue, and it has no associated carbon attached to it. Essentially, it’s a green product that we can look to sell into a niche market and potentially get a premium for it.

“We’re looking to create this product — which will be when we’re net zero by 2026 — and once we have that we’ll have a unique product that we can take out to market and look for a premium.”

Prior to achieving its first gold pour, Bellevue Gold signed a refining agreement with ABC Refinery in May 2023 for a critical pathway to track the supply chain provenance of its greenhouse gas emissions from the mine site to a refined end product.

Under this agreement, Bellevue’s gold doré can be refined separately from other companies’ gold, enabling Bellevue Gold’s refined gold to be marketed as a differentiated ‘green product’.

Future operations at Bellevue

Now that Bellevue Gold is on track for net zero by 2026, its focus is now on embedding ESG into its culture and everything it does.

This includes looking at ways to reduce waste, optimise processes and weaving an ESG focus into the day-to-day decision making and operations at Bellevue.

Bellevue is now ramping up production at its namesake project, something Mr Stralow said the company is excited about.

“We’re really excited by the growth from the operation, we’ve just gotten into production and we’re getting into ramp up at the moment,” he said.

“We feel it’s an asset that we’re just scraping the surface of.

“We’re really setting things up to be operating and profitable for decades to come.”